Legally, it could be a lot bigger, but the Kasich administration wants to stick to a restrained
capital budget that will fund a variety of building and water projects for the next two years.

The $1.74 billion capital budget includes about $1.4 billion of debt backed by general revenue.
State Budget Director Tim Keen said that if the state wanted to borrow the full amount allowed by
law — a debt cap of 5 percent of general-revenue funds — the budget could have contained more than
$1 billion in additional money.

Keen said the bill focuses on “necessary maintenance and upkeep of the state’s core
responsibilities.” It does not include funding for any so-called community projects, a pot of money
that, in the past, has contained about $120 million for projects such as the Scioto Mile parks,
Columbus Museum of Art, King Arts Complex and Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

“The intention was to get a sense of the capital needs broadly, then review the projects that
agencies presented and to fund those most-critical projects that needed to be addressed,” Keen told
the House Finance Committee. “We wanted to limit those appropriations that would cause the state to
add to its long-term obligations as we move forward.”

Rep. John Patrick Carney, D-Columbus, questioned Keen about the lack of community projects,
noting that if the administration did not consider them, “how do we know that those investments
might not end up yielding more jobs, economic development for the state? As you know, it’s been
tough to get capital for a number of businesses and individuals.”

Carney said that legislators should consider those projects now that the governor’s proposal is
before them.

The bill contains:

• $400 million for higher education. Unlike capital budgets for the past 15 years, which gave
construction dollars to colleges and universities based on a formula, Kasich required the state’s
37 institutions to create a single request focused on top-priority projects. Ohio State University
President E. Gordon Gee led the effort, which was rubber-stamped yesterday. Ohio’s universities
face a backlog of maintenance projects estimated at more than $5 billion.

• $675 million for K-12 school buildings. This is less than the school-facilities program has
received in recent years, when it was fueled by $4 billion from the securitized tobacco settlement.
Keeping funding at current levels would have required $800 million to $1.2 billion, but Keen said
the proposed amount should support 77 current projects and an additional 20 to 25.

• $365 million for public-works projects such as roads, bridges, water systems and solid-waste
disposal.

• $68 million for state prisons.

• $15.5 million for the youth prison system.

• $15 million for the Department of Developmental Disabilities.

• $14.5 million for the attorney general to modernize state crime labs and build a new lab at
Bowling Green State University, allowing for a new collaboration that will prepare students in
forensic sciences.